Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Guard Duty.

The number of trick or treaters' will approach 200 tonight. It's important to get home right after work to be there for the toddlers who are dressed to the nines and get lugged around by the moms. Then the grade schoolers arrive. This is what it's all for. Some are very creative, some just lazy looking for free candy. Later the streets will fill with cars loaded with city kids. Why they don't park and walk still gets to me, because most of the people put putting down the streets are the ones who most need to spend a lot more time walking.

Around 8PM is the guard duty time. The lights are out to signal we are out of candy and I'm outside watching for the teens roaming the streets looking to pull pranks. More of a pain in the ass type of pranks, but annoying none the less. I'll be out directing them to the neighbors houses.

Halloween is one of the two that I personally enjoy. The end of the harvest season when the worlds of the living and the dead overlap. Costumes and masks are worn to mimic the dead and placate their spirits. It was originally a celebration of the final harvest of the growing season among the ancient Celts. It was also their new year celebration. Now it's just fun.

Easter is my other favorite. The first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox. A time of new life (lilly) and abundant life (rabit). When day and night are of equal lentgh. A raucous fertility festival that has been toned down to a family gathering in my household.

If your in the neighborhood, come by tonight and get your treat. But keep an eye on the roof and bushes. You never know what spirit will be lurking.

7 comments:

Wow. Since we live in an apartment complex with mostly students, we only had a couple of trick-or-treaters last year. This year, we won't even be home as we're going to pick up a friend of mine from Indianapolis. The only thing I feel I'll miss is seeing my nephew's costume. If we get back early enough, maybe I'll swing by to see it.

I like Halloween, but my favorite holiday is definitely Thanksgiving. I love that it's just a time for family and food, without pretense. No gift-exchanging, no real distractions. Just people and food. It also helps that I'm descended from some Pilgrims.

My favorite Halloween "trick" is to put a pedestal outside my front door with one of our ginormous metal mixing bowls absolutely heaping full with candy.

Why's that my favorite trick? Well, it seems that large bowls of unattended candy make easy targets for Greedy McFatFat, who ceremoniously dumps the entire contents of said bowl into his sack before moving along to pillage the next victim who dare leave candy out.

You see, my pedestal holds a six-volt lantern battery attached to an inductor coil. It just so happens that when the circuit formed between that bowl and the pedestal is broken, a high-voltage, low amperage burst of energy is release, shocking the everloving crap out of the twerp who dares to pull a fast one.

Then I open the door and laugh relentlessly as Greedy runs off, crying for Mommy McFatFat. A quick nudge to the hidden button on the back gives me plausible deniability, and I simply claim that Greedy McFatFat made it all up because I opened the door laughing, which scared him.

Coming up with 3 costumes that are creative instead of "lazy" is difficult...not my type of creativity. Once in a while I have a good one otherwise they are a little better than the Lazy McFatFat's and not quite as good as those so creative ones that I envy when I see them...

Unfortunately I live right in the heart of the college campus so I have to drive out to a more residential setting (my neighbors are nice enough to all give the kids a candy bar...but the real trick or treating needs more than 4 houses, my block, in order to make the kids feel accomplished for the night).

Fun times. I'm hoping not to see any ghosts...had enough of those for a lifetime! :)